Phil Grice once said to me; if every member left happy, how long until you’re full?

Not very long.

It’s one of those observations that sounds obvious until you sit with it for a moment; and then you realise how much it challenges the way most clubs think about their food and beverage operation. If the answer is “not very long,” then the follow-up question is uncomfortable… why aren’t we full?

Most golf clubs, when confronted with that question, reach for price. The food is too expensive. Members won’t pay it. We need a deal, an offer, a discount to get people through the door. And restaurants outside of golf do exactly the same thing; two-for-one, early bird, loyalty cards, relentless marketing spend.

I’ve spent twenty years in hospitality and I’ve come to believe that this instinct, whilst understandable, is fighting the wrong battle entirely. Price is almost never the real blocker. Competence is. Consistency is. The willingness to do the boring, unglamorous work of getting the basics right, every single day… that’s what moves the numbers.

What the research tells us

There’s a fascinating piece of research from Cornell University, conducted alongside J.D. Power, that looked at hotel guest spending. They found that guests who received four simple things; an accurate booking, a quick check-in, no problems during their stay, and no billing errors; went on to spend significantly more on site than guests who didn’t get that basic experience.

The numbers were striking. Guests who had a smooth, competent experience spent an average of $57 on ancillary services. Those who didn’t? $37. That’s a 54% uplift from doing nothing clever at all. No upselling technique, no pricing strategy, no loyalty programme. Just competence and consistency.

Restaurant research points in exactly the same direction. Studies of full-service chains have found that “intention to return” can explain over half of the differences in sales performance between units. Not location, not menu design, not marketing spend; the single biggest predictor of whether one restaurant outperforms another is whether guests intend to come back.

And what drives that intention? Boring, unfashionable things. Food that arrives hot and as described. Staff who seem to care. Bills that are accurate. A room that feels looked after. None of it is revolutionary...

The most powerful lever on your P&L isn’t keeping a £4 bacon sandwich, or running a two-for-one on a Tuesday. It’s a place where members and guests trust they’ll get a good experience every time they walk through the door.

I think what gets missed in these conversations is how low the bar actually is. We’re talking about opening times that people can rely on. A full menu that’s actually available. Service standards that are clear and trained, not “depends who’s on.” The bill is right, every time.

That’s it. That’s the competitive advantage.

I’ve seen clubs pour energy into marketing campaigns, loyalty schemes, and elaborate event calendars whilst the core offer underneath is inconsistent. Members learn very quickly whether they can trust the kitchen; and once that trust is lost, no amount of promotion brings them back. But get the basics right and something remarkable happens… people come back more often, they bring guests, and they stop questioning the price.

What this means in pounds and pence

Let’s make this tangible. If your club catering does 200 covers a week and your average spend is £12 per head, that’s roughly £124,800 a year. Now imagine that by getting the basics consistently right, you increase your return rate by just 10%. That’s 20 additional covers a week; an extra £12,480 a year in revenue, with almost no additional cost.

But it compounds. The bar spend goes up because people stay when they’re comfortable. The Sunday lunch books out because word gets around that it’s reliable, not because you discounted it.

A 5–10% lift in guest return rate, driven by nothing more than competence and consistency, can translate to £10,000–£25,000 of additional annual revenue for a typical club restaurant. That’s not a projection from a consultant’s slide deck; it’s basic maths, grounded in well-established hospitality research.

The question for 2026

As clubs plan for the season ahead, I’d urge every committee, every General Manager, every F&B team to ask a very simple question: are we getting the basics right?

Not “are we doing something exciting?” Not “what’s our next event?” Not “how do we compete on price?”

Are we getting the basics right?

Is the food hot, well-presented, and as described on the menu? Are the opening hours consistent and communicated? Does the team know what good service looks like, and are they trained and supported to deliver it? Is the bill accurate? Is the dining room clean, warm, and welcoming?

These are not glamorous questions. They don’t make for exciting board presentations. But they are, by a considerable margin, the most commercially important questions any club can ask about its food and beverage operation.

Phil was right. If every member left happy, you’d be full. The distance between where most clubs are and where they need to be isn’t a marketing strategy or a pricing review… it’s the discipline to do the simple things, really well, every single day.

You know what… that’s all any of us want. A decent product, consistently served, by an operation that cares about its members and guests. Get that right and you earn the right to a fair price; and you grow sales because people come back more often and bring others with them.

Have a great weekend.

Tony

If you'd like dedicated time to work through your club's F&B challenges, book a Power Hour Strategy Call. One hour, focused on your situation, with benchmarking, guidance, and a clear action plan to take away. £245 + VAT.